OpenAI is reportedly working on a new social platform built around proof-of-personhood to tackle bot activity, exploring biometric verification tools such as Face ID and World's iris-scanning technology. As interest in biometric digital identity rises, the Worldcoin (WLD) token, linked to Sam Altman's World project, surged more than 16% to $0.53 within hours.

On January 28, the U.S. SEC released a Statement on Tokenised Securities clarifying issuer-sponsored, custodial, and synthetic models for tokenized assets. The same day, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev urged real-time, blockchain-based settlement and outlined a shift toward custodial equity tokens for investors, arguing T+1 remains too slow and noting weekends can stretch settlement to four days.

Institutions increasingly treat Bitcoin volatility as manageable, with liquidity now the core execution risk. Market depth at 1% and refill dynamics, alongside intraday cycles, drive costs, while ETFs and stablecoins shape flows. With 30% drops near round numbers, timing and structure matter more than price swings.

On January 10, 2026, Solana's maintainers urged Mainnet-Beta validators to install Agave v3.0.14, and on January 11 early snapshots showed only 18% adoption. On January 16, Anza detailed two flaws in gossip and vote processing disclosed in December 2025, and the Solana Foundation tightened delegation criteria to require specific client versions. On January 19, v3.1.7 reached testnet while v3.0.14 remained the main focus for mainnet.

On 21 January, Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman published updated language for the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act and set a 27 January committee markup. The proposal would empower the CFTC to supervise crypto spot-market activity via intermediaries, create a retail user advocate with semi-annual reporting, and fund oversight through industry fees plus an initial $150 million.

Spacecoin's SPACE token climbed 65% after listing on Binance, alongside Season 1 airdrop plans. The team outlined a 2026/01/23 20:00 to 2026/01/30 20:00 (UTC+8) claim window and expanded multichain support across Creditcoin, Ethereum, BSC and Base. At writing it traded near $0.021, below a $0.026 launch peak.

BlackRock's Thematic Outlook 2026 casts Ethereum as core infrastructure for tokenisation, citing over 65% of tokenised assets on the network. As of 22 January, RWA.xyz reports Ethereum's RWA share at 59.84 per cent with around $12.8 billion, while rollup dynamics and fee routing raise questions about direct value capture for ETH.

On January 20, 2026, Blockstream CEO Adam Back said a Bitfinex whale has been buying about 450 BTC per day near $90,000, roughly $40.6 million at recent prices. Glassnode's Week On-Chain set support around $81,100 and short term resistance near $98,400, warning of dense supply above $100,000 and downside risks below $90,000.

On 21 January, Binance announced the listing of Ripple's stablecoin RLUSD and opened spot trading pairs RLUSD/USDT, RLUSD/U and XRP/RLUSD on 22 January at 08:00 UTC. The exchange introduced zero-fee trading on RLUSD/USDT and RLUSD/U, aiming to accelerate RLUSD adoption as it seeks to compete with major stablecoins while its circulating supply stands at about USD1.4 billion.